Toshiba Gigabeat MEG-F40S (40GB, Silver)
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"Excellent performance, a gadgeteer's delight" on by urr_quasdim
Pros: Superb sound, fabulous color screen, many ripping/downloading options
Cons: + controller takes a while to master, Gigabeat Room adequate but not brilliant
Summary: CNET reviews are by and large reliable and useful guides but once in a while a review comes along with a strong individual flavor - not necessarily representative of the average user. The Gigabeat review falls into the latter category. If ease of use is the primary reason behind buying an MP3 player, the Gigabeat is not the best choice. However, many users actually prefer a player that requires some learning, trial & error and, in general, an "explore & discover" approach to a device. This group of users is the gadget nuts and for those the Gigabeat is a delight! Once you master it, you enjoy top-rate sound quality, an abundance of equalization options (incl. user's), a useful display with good, clear information, crisp digital photos while listening to music and lots of flexibility built into the menus. The main (+) control takes a bit of experimenting, it is no iPod Wheel but works reasonably well. The unit itself is well built (I am not sure how much of it is aluminum and how much plastic) and seems sturdy. Direct ripping from CD to device is very useful, and you get a 1 month free subscription to Napster-To-Go, enabling lots of free downloads (depending on the type of music you listen to). Gigabeat Room actually does the job and the icons are not as confusing as in the CNET review. It is no iTunes but quite adequate. Here are some specific responses to the CNET complaints: (1) "Cradle requires separate AC connection". Is that really such a big deal? (2) "Counterintuitive controls and confusing menus". The controls are a gadgeteer's delight, I don't find them counterintuitive and the menus are quite clear. (3) "frustrating bundled Gigabeat Room". Actually it is reasonably good and does the job quite well. (4) "no in-line remote-control pad included". Actually there is one included! (5) "no FM tuner, no voice or in-line recording". Do we really need these? Isn't this primarily for playing back MP3 (and similar) music? (6) no USB 2.0 support for...Napster". True, but I found downloading from Napster to the Gigabeat quite fast nontheless.
If you are a gadgeteer and care about high quality performance - the Gigabeat is for you. -
"A great product that is not over priced like the IPOD" on by Knight014
Pros: Great screen, good sound, Reliable
Cons: Yes the software is awful but this is still in infancy
Summary: This is a relatively new product. I hope the reviewer from CNET can give Toshiba some break rather than just jump on the bandwagon for IPOD. There IS an inline remote provided with the 40GB model, so fix that too CNET! The software does take patience, however if you are willing to learn, you will not regret it AT ALL! Visit this forum www.mygigabeat.com to find TONS of more information. Also, note that this product is still a child, I wonder if we look back at the baby IPOD what we will find. I am scared to look back at it because it still is a product unworthy of all its hype. People have DROPPED the gigabeat and it doesn't scratch. I haven't tried this but the durability has been applauded by a variety of users. Buy it and you will not regret it. Oh yeah and remember to use some other type of headphones, they are not the greatest and I am not an earphone person either.
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"Great Mp3 Player- This Is The One" on by sbatt912
Pros: Great screen, songs easily catoragized, lots of memory, album arts, fast start-up, easy to use software
Cons: Plus touch kindof hard to get used to
Summary: This is a great player, after searching for months this was the right one. Everything works great, the pictures are especially bright and colorful.
Updated
Jpg. and Bmp. photos can be easily added AND DELETED from the gigabeat through the Photo Browser of the included software- Gigabeat Room. Anyone who says that photos cannot be deleted from the gigabeat hard drive are definitly wrong. -
"Amazing product with some flaws" on by mgl888
Pros: sweet screen, good battery life, cheap, large capacity, many accessories
Cons: software & touchpad
Summary: everything about this player is great, from screen size, design to features. However, I have to agree that the plus touch is very counterintuitive and the gigabeat room software is slow and frustrating. But these problems can be solved now because of a new open resource firmware, Rockbox (its FREE). This firmware makes life a breeze, supporting drag&drop, MANY MANY more options and features from brightness of lcd screen to games and even VIDEO SUPPORT. It is fully customizable, and if you know programming, you can add your own features. Here's the link to it
http://www.rockbox.org/dl.cgi?bin=gigabeatf
poke around to find instructions on how to update. YOU DONT HAVE A GIGABEAT UNTIL YOU GET THIS! my F20 works like magic right now! -
"Great mp3 player with terrible and confusing software" on by AViper2k7
Pros: nice screen, picture viewer, album art, background graphics, price, fast startup, bothway usb for camera, wma and wav support, bookmark feature
Cons: terrible and confusing software usb 2.0 only available with it, hard to manage songs, album art faults, had to look in the manual several times, headphone cord is too short
Summary: This is a great audio player, fairly easy to play songs and view pictures.
*Software*
The software that you basically must use is terrible. I had to look in the manual to get it started, then I had a hard time syncing to a folder with it. It was hard to get new music on it. The album art was not displaying right. It would assign the same album art to every album without album art. I then used a program to edit them rapidly, as well as organize my music easier. I then tried to sync the fixed stuff and it wasn't displaying on the gigabeat right. Then after syncing again, it put every song on there again, so I had doubles of every song. I had to reformat it and start over. Then I put all my songs on again and I had to manually delete the same album art that was last used and assigned for that song. That took me 5 minutes for 2gb of songs. I only download albums now anyways. Sometimes the syncing still doesn't work right, but you can just delete the songs that you transfered and resync them.
*Gigabeat*
The gigabeat impressed me. The screen was nicer than I expected, and is alot better than the ipod. It has a nice picture viewer which I put comics on it and show them to friends. The display turns horizontal for pictures which makes them easy to read. I found it fairly easy to browse through songs. It has an album skip button when you press menu. A great part about the gigabeat is the ability to use wav or wma. WAV is uncompressed and some find WMA a little clearer. The headphones are pretty nice, but the cord is too short. It comes with an extended cord with basic buttons, but it's kind of pointless and the clip wieghs the earbuds down, so you can't have it suspended in air. A great part about the gigabeat is being able to bookmark a song. You can bookmark a good song, open it fast the next time you power on your gigabeat. The price per gig ($210) for 40GB is far better than other mp3 players, like the ipod. My friend bought a small 6GB ipod nano for the same price I payed for this!
Overall, the gigabeat is a great mp3 player with lower prices and an amazing screen for picture viewing, but the software and limitations nearly kill the item from competing with main brand mp3 players like the Zen or Ipod.
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